Nubians a step closer to redemption
The Africentric drive toward playing for the Division III championship didn’t start during AAU summer league basketball, in the weight room or in pickup games in the fall.
It actually began two days after the Nubians were jolted by eventual champion Gates Mills Gilmour Academy in a state tournament semifinal loss when coach Will McKinney began jotting down notes and thoughts.
The homework paid off as junior guard Jordan Horston totaled 18 points, six rebounds, three assists, two blocked shots and two steals in Africentric’s 50-37 victory over OttawaGlandorf in a state semifinal on Thursday night at Value City Arena.
The Nubians (26-3) will attempt to win a sixth championship against Versailles (28-1) at 2 p.m. Saturday.
“I definitely was happy to win the game and get back to the state championship,’’ McKinney said. “I thought in the first half we missed a few defensive assignments. In the second half, we played much better defense. I watched the (championship) game and refocused about what I needed to do to get the team back here.”
Ottawa-Glandorf (25-3) hung tough for the first half in trailing 23-21 despite missing 6 of 12 free throws and committing nine turnovers.
But the Titans came out misfiring in the third quarter by missing five layups, getting a charging foul and having two traveling violations the first five minutes.
Africentric wasn’t exactly humming but bumped the lead to 32-24 largely behind Horston, who made a spinning layup, hit a follow-up and a short jumper from the baseline.
“The girl that was guarding me was a lot shorter than me, and I had a mismatch,” Horston said. “I had to step up, provide points and go to the basket.”
Horston attempted 15 shots, making nine. She is shooting 53.1 percent, but averages only 13.8 shots.
“I don’t have to push her to shoot it, but there are certain moments when we have to take advantage of all of our mismatches,” McKinney said. “Sometimes there is opportunity for different players. Sometimes I do have to tell certain players that, ‘All right, it’s on you.’ “
The advantage grew to 38-27 on a baseline drive by guard Alexia Smith with 4:10 remaining in the game.
The bottom line was the Nubians forcing 20 turnovers and 24.4 percent shooting (11 for 45). The Titans had averaged 5.6 threepointers made but were 3 of 16, and two came in the closing minutes.
“I just feel like after our coach told us to come out and play hard defense, we just took it and played hard,” guard Nyam Thornton said. “Our offense is pretty much our defense.”
Erin Kaufman led Ottawa-Glandorf with 14 points. Kadie Hempfling had 11 rebounds and three steals.